Skyrim: The Dragonlord

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Getting artsy with my screencaps! :P

Xuru. I knew that name. The brother of Zuna who I completely forgot to look for after her death. I guess the Thalmor got his hands on him and swayed him to their side. There would be no talking him out of it though, so Twilight, Sofia, Bo, Aurora and I went to face him at his mountainous retreat. He was easy to find with his two dragon allies slaughtering everything in sight. Fireballs began to rain from the sky as I went after the named dragon first. It died pretty quick after I confused it with a Bend Will shout. At the same time  Aurora got blown to smitherines right beside me from a falling fireball.

In the distance I saw a chain of lighting strikes from the sky electrocuting Bo. There was nothing I could do for her but run past to the second dragon and slam it with a one hit kill, before turning to face Xuru. He had just finished running through Twilight with his two handed sword, and then with a small wrist gesture - summoned a brand new dragon instantaneously. Sofia leapt at it to keep it off me while I faced off against the knight landing a number of solid hits. He returned some too, and I needed heal pots after each one I didn't evade.

The showdown!

With perma dragon-aspect active, Xuru managed to fus roh dah me away a good distance. I landed on the corpse of my horse - the one that I thought couldn't die. I got back on my feet to see Xuru facing away from me. At his feet, Sofia's mangled body. She had managed to slay the dragon, but it didn't matter. As he turned to face me simply summoned another one. In a rage I charged twin blades flashing but he parried and disarmed my 900+ damage sword which was subsequently thrown to who knows where with all the explosions and lightning.

He's definitely the toughest non-scripted enemy I've faced!

Against a single blade he was pretty good at parrying, but I knew exactly how to make him drop his guard. I rolled past him and slew the dragon. As expected he did that wrist thing to summon another but by doing so left himself open to the final blow. The next dragon never did arrive. Xuru fell to his knees and collapsed onto the ground, dead. Exhausted, I surveyed the battlefield as the rain stopped.

I was the only one left standing.

Skyrim: Thalmor Agent Yyon

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Did I mention Brhuce rides a train?

Because he does.

Finally I collect the Tankard of Why, get out of that place and hand it over to Sofia. Brhuce still doesn't want to go back to his dad though, intent on continuing his adventures. We don't get to argue much though as a panicked villager informs us of an attack on Riverwood. Heading there we find the guards being slaughtered by Thalmor Agent Yyon and his cronies! This guy is far worse than Zavakin, having the ability to summon a shade of one of the named dragons I had already slain. Fortunately we have reinforcements in the form of Bo, Twilight and Aurora, as well as Brhuce's summons: the steam shooting "Trainmen". 

As I said, Brhuce also shoots trains.

Yyon's henchies don't last long but he himself is adept at healing just at the verge of death, so this ranged battle (thanks to Brhuce's continued knock back attacks) takes really long. Alas, Brhuce's own combo of shooting knock back trains followed up by instant teleportation beside his target to attack with his swords proves to be his undoing when he attempts it on an airborne dragon - and misses. With a loud scream and a sickening crunching splat, the law of gravity proved to be his undoing.

Meanwhile, Yyon was setting everything on fire.

Yyon turned out to be quite the pyromaniac, but with so many targets for him to keep track of he left his back open for my +900 x6 sneak attack damage backstab which was far too much for him to heal from. With him finally dead, my old allies informed me that the Thalmor had sent an even bigger threat to Skyrim which is why Bo had returned from Elswyr and the sisters from their campaign in Summerset Isle. They had sent a Dragonlord!?

Skyrim: Hammar Time

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Brhuce does not apologize for the small text.

We find Medeliu's son, Brhuce, in the lowest bowels of a derelict pumphouse in Blackreach. He's pretty funny, but also a bit of a dick. He quickly offends Fawadin who storms off in a huff. I tell him that his father is looking for him but he doesn't care. Instead he wants to go after the Tankard of Why, some insanely alcoholic beverage which also grants the ability to know everything(?). I tell him I don't drink, but Sofia quickly pipes up that she does so... I guess we're roped in to helping!

That's specific.

It actually takes me some time to find the ruin the tankard is hiding in, because Brhuce doesn't believe in quest markers. I eventually find it near Falkreath, but someone else is there waiting for us - a mage knight named Zavakin who clearly wants us dead. The guy is a monstrous tank, but not too strong in the damage dealing department. To that end I stand back and let my allies deal with him.

Apparently Brhuce's main form of attack is throwing miniature trains that inflict severe knockback. This, combined with Sofia's high damage output is too much for him and Sofia finishes him off while he begs for his life.

Burrrrrned!

Finally we reach Hfernerfberf and I'm a little surprised that Brhuce doesn't enter the place with us. While it is guarded by lowly draugr there is some trippy stuff going on here, like tables overflowing with ale (which Sofia stops to partake at), giant skooma bottles, corridors full of moon sugar and traps which spawn immortal giant ghost spiders whom you have to simply run from. In a circle.

LOL!

Skyrim: Yngvarr's Folly

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Running low on henchmen there Mr. Bad guy.

We find Yngvarr and the last of his troops at the temple which holds the Heart of the Gods. Too bad for him, his wizards hadn't yet disabled the magic shield protecting it and so he began trying to stall by giving the longest speeches ever. For some, unfathomable reason he challenges me to a duel right then and there. I laugh at his face and accept, slaying him with the very first strike which he couldn't even react to. I'm guessing that's not what was supposed to happen? Haha.

Shocked by this Yngvarr's remaining men surrendered to Jarl Agnar who then got them to seal the temple. With our work here complete, I teleported my team back to Skyrim (that Asylum spell is fantastic) and spent a night of quiet celebratory dinner at my Riften home. Lucia and Sofie were happy to see us too and enjoyed the the gifts I brought back for them. Sofie apparently tamed a rabbit as well and I let her keep it as a pet.

I don't remember what the food was, but judging from the empty plates it was good.

It was nice to have a short time of not doing anything important, playing tag with the kids and listening to Sofia's stories. A message from Medeliu Hammar ended that though as he had a job for us: to find his son in Blackreach.

Skyrim: Blood Lust

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Jarl "bloody" Agnar's idea of a rescue mission.

Upon reporting of Kolgrim's death, Agnar orders we seize the advantage and basically kill everyone. This is a little hectic as there are a LOT more soldiers once we get out of the building but with much use of slow time and my speed bonus, I keep everyone alive up to the main gates. That's when we run into problems - Yngvarr rides up with a group of his elite warriors and demands Agnar to hand over the keys in exchange for everyone's lives. Being a moron, Agnar agrees.

Guess he's still upset about the last time we met.

Yngvarr rides off at the start of the melee and his elite warriors turn out to be pretty decent, especially since I hadn't yet recovered from the initial "escape". While my people survive the battle, the only other survivors are Agnar and his son. In a rage Agnar rallies his small army when we get back to Amber Creek, so that we may wage war directly on Yngvarr's fortress. Why he didn't do that at the start is a mystery, but just from the above it's clear he's not the smartest person around.

I'm tasked with clearing the gates for the main force.

In what feels more like a small skirmish, Agnar's forces quickly penetrate Yngvarr's defenses but once again the coward flees while his elites cover his escape. To be fair, if he gets the Heart of the Gods he becomes immortal so, it's a pretty good excuse. Agnar orders my team to go after him.

Probably because I've got the first ever space marine with me.

Skyrim: Recovery Specialists

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At the meeting Jarl Agnar decreed the fellowship would split in half to go for the two remaining keys. It was up to me to decide which group to accompany, so I joined Jarl Agnar and his monk ally to an old monastery which was now the main base for the remaining necromancers on the island, and boy did they have a lot of draugr death lords in there with them. Still, I sat back and let Agnar, the monk, Sofia and Fawadin do all the work until the last room.

Fawadin likes the Lull-Mor tech!

Six arch necromancers in one room was just far too dangerous so using Slow Time I rushed ahead and ended the fight before any of my allies fell. Just passed them was the key we were looking for, and upon returning to Amber Creek we discovered the other team was equally successful. The only problem was that the town itself had been attacked by Yngvarr's men and had taken Agnar's family hostage. A captured combatant spills the beans on where they were taken just before Agnar executes him anyway.

Our next job was simple: infiltrate the enemy fort and rescue Agnar's wife and kid. And all of us were going!

Yay for big parties! :P

Fortunately Agnar knew of a secret path in which made infiltration and finding the hostages pretty easy. While the rest of the team worked on the locked doors, Sofia, Fawadin and I took a look around and found Lieutenant Kolgrim on the roof. While the orc was busy bragging Fawadin pointed his gun at him and blew him away. On his corpse the key we found the key he had taken from Borvald which is a pretty good bonus.

Skyrim: Robbing the Bandit

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After dealing with the necromancers it was back to the campaign against the local bandits, who weren't bandits at all but soldiers of Lord Yngvarr. To my surprise Yngvarr was in Amber Creek upon our return, alone, and demanding that Jarl Agnar let him search for... something. Agnar basically told him to shove it and sent him off empty handed. The silly Jarl then dropped his brave act and turned to us, desperate to recruit allies for the upcoming war against Yngvarr. I figured that there was a much easier solution.

We caught up with Yngvarr, beat him up, and stripped him of his gear.
Fawadin then decided to wear his "anvil" armor.

As a bandit chief I thought Yngvarr would appreciate that.

Beating him up wasn't the same as stopping his army though, and just as we arrived at the neighboring town of Borvald it came under attack from his army and fell spectacularly fast which is surprising since the local citizens could actually go toe to toe with the invaders. I guess the non visible catapults firing the flaming boulders were simply too much.

Defeat by plot.

Escaping through the local crypt, we at least discovered what Yngvarr was after when we witnessed his orc Lieutenant, Kolgrim, take a strange keystone through a well placed window. That and he actually mentioned what Yngvarr was after. Something called "The Heart of the Gods". With that information we returned to Jarl Agnar at Amber Creek who assembled his "fellowship" to a meeting about this. Apparently the Heart is what keeps this land habitable and not totally frozen. Five keys were distributed long ago to protect any one person from accessing it.

There were still two keys out there.

Skyrim: Dream Crystal

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Falskaar: Where women and children don't matter.

Continuing the campaign against the bandits, we clear them out from the docks where they had taken locals prisoner. One of them happens to be a trader that sails between Falskaar and Dawnstar, so we pay the 500 gold passage fee (both ways) to recruit someone to replace our fallen ally (Bandit). Fawadin, the Nord who I previously met working as Burgundy's bodyguard was in town and was up to the task.

Making camp.

Back at Falskaar (which is surprisingly warm for a place North of Dawnstar), another theme to many of the quests is that the local necromancers are taking control of various critters through use of magical stones. It's like they're playing Pokemon,  and it's up to me to collect all them. The stones that is. Arnand, the helpful monk guy suggests all this is actually the result of a rogue member of his order, so after collecting all the pieces we head to some ruins where it can be destroyed. Of course, said bad guy gets all the pieces in transit and makes the place go a bit crazy more visually appealing.

Floating furniture!

Pity that he's a push over when we reach him though, basically only summoning draugr to do his dirty work. When he ultimately tries to use the mega-pokeball assembled Dream Crystal it kills him. That kind of wrapped up rather nicely for us!

Skyrim: Falskaar

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After our adventurers in Lull-Mor, Sofia and I regrouped with Bandit (who basically missed out on all the fun) and returned to Riften to check on my adopted kids Sofie and Lucia. After giving them gifts and absurd amounts of coin (because I can) we are approached by an old guy who asks us to check on a nearby mine as he saw some never-do-wells nearby. Thinking it would be a quick task, I accepted, only to find a bandit army and their reverend dragon camped out there! Fortunately Riften's Jarl had sent out some guards to assist, while led to another overwhelming victory.

Strength in numbers!

The cave itself has a few more bandits but more interestingly a magic portal! This one way trip sends Bandit, Sofia and myself to another ruin where we are immediately met by a guardsman who asks for help to save someone from bandits further in the cave. We do so easily, and are rewarded with a delivery quest to the nearby town of ... Amber Creek? Where the heck are we?

Welcome to Falskaar.

There's no shortage of things to do when we finally get to the town, as almost everyone has either misplaced or needs something from the surrounding areas. One of the main themes is that the local thugs seem to all be organizing and thanks to a warning given to one of the townsfolk, my team is sent to stop that attack from ever happening.

This looks like the place.

This leads us to raiding a fortress full of them, and during the attack Bandit (my ally) takes a fatal arrow to the head by a khajiit sniper who won their ranged duel thanks to his superior position up in the ramparts. It takes us awhile to get in there, but when I find him I make sure to separate his head from his shoulders.

Skyrim: Archeron

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Certainly has a sense of humor.

After pushing enough Thalmor into lava we catch up to Archeron just before he can take his doohickey. The banana puts up a decent fight, forcing me to use all the tools from Lull-Mor to undo his color coded god modes. After hurting him enough he decides to change into his final form(?) which is a giant floating skull and skeletal hands! While the hands are moderately annoying at trying to push me off the many cliffs in this arena, the skulls fireball is the main damage threat. Takes me a short time to identify its weak spot (I've had practice looking for these now) and capitalize on it.

Boom!

Sofia and I awake in some huge chamber. Llavados and Memory (the girl he wanted us to save, and quite possibly the MacGuffin herself) are here. Apparently she will be a big part in people surviving some sort of catastrophe in the future. He thanks us, says that I've met him before but I don't remember, and sends us on our way. But not before Memory totally kills my winning mood with this line.

What? Why!? How? So many questions...

PS - Damn this was a really good mod! Highly recommended!

Skyrim: The Bottom of the World

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

Stumbling around the dark we are surprised to encounter Llavados, the Dunmer cyborg who first brought us to Lull-Mor, and he is surprisingly sane. Apparently if I can survive the bottom of the world I will find what I need to defeat Archeron. Inspired, we look around and find puzzles that mostly rely on sending lights back to open doors. This is really cool, and sets the stage for a boss fight against a giant robot who can only be defeated by laser light beams.

Finding the light in the darkest places.

He drops the Lullian Shield, which has the impressive ability of being able to throw people around through bashing. After practicing on a wandering golem, I get to use it for real as Masscroft comes down from an elevator (to the bottom of the world... sure why not) to make sure we are dead. Fortunately there's a handy hole in the center of the room (to the bottom-est of the world?) and regardless of his god mode or invisibility potions, it's pretty easy pushing him into it repeatedly. Eventually he fails to crawl back out.

Taking the lift back to Lull-Mor, Medeliu Hammar tells us that Archeron has sent through his whole squad of immortal experiments into the dig which doesn't bode well for Numinar or his folk. Sofia and I give chase and thankfully the caves give way to lava filled chambers, the type that's just perfect to push god-mode enemies into!

Tossing god mode baddies into lava. I'm getting good at this!

Skyrim: Into Darkness

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

So that's what an undead cyborg looks like.

These undead cyborgs turned out to be random undead critters that lived in a really dark forest. Skeletal charrus and skeletal mammoths which were tough but killable. The were somehow led by a skeletal giant which Sofia easily slew, but his death caused a great explosion which knocked me out. When I awake, I am back in Lull-Mor with two strangers who supposedly helped drag me out of the rubble.

It's starting to get crowded down here.

I don't get to talk long though because Lull-Mor soon comes under a Thalmor attack! Fortunately these are the regular types of bananas who are easily put down, but after the combat the same people who saved me frame me as the Thalmor's inside man! Numinar has Sofia and I locked up before departing to claim the MacGuffin. Alone with the two strangers, they shed their magical disguises revealing themselves to be Justicar Archeron and Masscroft!

Archeron gloats a little bit on how he played everyone and decides to drop our hanging cages down a "bottomless" pit. Nothing I haven't done before. This time though, Sofia and I end up at the bottom of the world.

Looks like this world is built upon gears!

Skyrim: The Boiling Foundry

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The land of gears and pistons...

The Boiling Foundry is a dangerous place, filled with environmental hazards that liked to either spin or push you into the insta-death boiling water below so I let Sofia set out of this mission deciding to tackle it solo. Most of it was guarded by relatively weak robots, but one named the welding soldier was a definite test of patience. His room had pushing mechanisms to force him (or me) into the death hole in the center but that was a lot harder to do than it sounds. Especially since you needed to push him into it four or five times.

His god mode means there's no other way to beat him.

After that challenge I was greeted by an old friend: the steam dragon. He was the final guard to the titanium drill bit and while he did let me just take it, I couldn't leave the room without slaying him. He too had upgraded to god mode armor, but showering him in lava was enough to render him vulnerable to a fast kill. Finally I could take the elevator back to Lull-Mor.

Sorry old pal.

Back at the outpost I was tasked with fixing random things like monitors and clockwork guardians while waiting for Sofia. She successfully sabotaged Archeron's main mining operation while I was busy in the foundry. It wasn't long before Numinar had a job for both of us again: the drilling had run into an unexpected snag - undead fabricants (also cyborgs). This place just gets weirder and weirder.

Skyrim: Modified Bananas

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*pats her head*

With some forged documents and a magical disguise, Sofia and I step through Lull-Mor's teleporter and head to the Thalmor base. I have to ask her to sit outside though as to not blow my cover. Gaining entry is easy, and I am taken to meet the ex-psijic banana in charge, Justicar Archeron and his bodyguard, Banana Bane Masscroft. After a brief interview they head off somewhere and I am free to snoop around - finding that these Thalmor are not like any others I've encountered before, mainly due to Archeron's penchant for body modification.

Body modification: the Tamriel Edition.

While snooping in his laboratory I'm suddenly knocked out and awake trapped in a cell. Archeron shows up to taunt me and spill some of his plan before leaving to prepare his lab for my lobotomy. Obviously I break out of there before that happens. Interestingly all the modified guards are on god mode, which means sneaking out really involves sneaking. I manage to collect not only Archeron's journal but also my gear before leaving the place, getting to Sofia and extracting back to Lull-Mor.

Numinar is furious and rallies his Chronographers. The plan is to dig to the MacGuffin before Archeron can reach it and ambush his forces there. To do that though we require a titanium drill bit from the long abandoned foundries below and guess who is the lucky person tasked to get it?

Skyrim: Lull-Mor

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

I guess this place is haunted...

The cyborg core tells us we need to reach the Wheels of Lull, which is accessible via a deep mine. Bandit refuses to enter due to her claustrophobia so I get her to guard outside while Sofia and I deal with the multitude of poltergeists within. Poltergeists that like to throw mine carts around, and join together to form a giant poltergeist! Sofia has some fun tearing that one into pieces.

I did have to help out a little.

Eventually we find elevators down to Lull-Mor, an technologically advanced outpost manned by more cyborgs: the Chronographers. Their leader, Numinar, is not so pleased to have us here but since there are problems with the other outposts he puts us to work on discovering who is behind these incursions. I'm surprised he doesn't ask the resident know it all, Medeliu Hammar, who is actually really interesting to talk to.

It's pretty cool that they offer to outfit us with guns, but since my bow is better I just purchase one for Sofia before heading out to investigate. And by investigate I mean put up some poles which discover that the Thalmor are behind all of Lull-Mor's problems. Numinar tasks me next to go undercover to the Bananas Thalmor experiment post to gather more data.

I am so calling them bananas now. :P

Skyrim: Disavowed

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We finally reach the hideout of the Mythic Dawn and by luck, the moron we "saved" is related to the cult leader so we are instantly offered a low level "errand runner" position in the cult. Huzzah, now we can go fetch the troll fat, the illegal weapon supplies, crates of ale, etc. The good part about being in the logistics department is that we can come and go as we please, so obviously my first stop is to retrieve all my OP gear. :P

Bandit is really getting into the whole, pretend to be a cultist thing.

Anyway, the base is huge and crawling with an army of people. They are nice enough, apart from the fact that they're trying to open gates to Oblivion again, and I am soon tasked with eliminating their chief smelter who can turn silver ingots into daedric equipment - most probably because she's hacked. While that's easy enough to do, the rest of the quest unfortunately does not continue due to scripting problems or conflicts I suppose which leaves me only one course of action.

Kill... them... ALL!

You think?

It's not surprising that I am kicked out of the Agents of Stendarr after the massacre, and they don't want anything more to do with my bloodthirsty ways (which is pretty rich coming from them). Anyway, we are on the way to check on Rayya when a strange, and possibly crazy cyborg dunmer approaches us and asks for our help in saving someone. In an interesting twist, he "kills" himself so that we can take him (his core, which can still talk) with us.

"No getting stuck in walls" is a good bonus! :P

Skyrim: Secret Agent

Adventures in Skyrim - spoilers ahead! You can follow the rest of the story here!

After collecting the requested items for the Temple of Stendarr I am asked if I want to join their order. Given I've joined all the other groups so far I accept and am tasked with hunting an ex-member who turned into a werewolf as my "trial". We find him easy enough, and though he seems to be the amiable, loner sort I opt to kill the abomination anyway. For the greater good! The Stendarrites are pleased with this, and task me next with infiltrating the "Remnants of the Mythic Dawn" cult. Yep, the same ones that opened the Oblivion Gates.

Too bad he didn't beg for his miserable life. 

I would have killed him regardless.

To do this I'd need to leave all my gear, dress up like a warlock and make friends with a captive cultist they have in custody. Sure why not. Sofia also wants to do this, and cannot be talked out of it. Since being "imprisoned" with two bodyguards would probably be too much to believe, Bo leaves the party at this point and wishes us luck. She decides to head back to Elswyr to have adventures with Skullcat. I'm a little jealous.

Instead we get to crawl through this.

So, Sofia and I end up in prison with some random cultist guy. As planned we help him escape (through the shitter, literally) and since he is probably a moron, he decides to invite us to join his order. We accept! He then leads us on what appears to be a marathon across at least a fourth of the country and obviously we have to keep him alive in the process.

Iron knifing trolls. Ahh that takes me back.

There is a small benefit in that his path takes us near Riverwood, so I make a quick detour to recruit Bandit (Bo's battle sister) which seems natural to the cultist since she's basically just hired muscle.